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Globalization and Catholic Social Teaching: A Reflective Synthesis

Twenty-six scholars, academics and social justice activists gathered outside Toronto, September 25-28, 2003, to assess the relevance and promise of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) for the globalizing dynamics of today. A general consensus emerged from this group that CST in its present form has much to contribute to the world community, but it clearly cannot claim to be a global ethic, marked as it is by both the strengths and the clear limitations of being culturally western and theologically Catholic-Christian. The challenge is to develop a Catholic ethic for globalization that can be brought into constructive dialogue with the other faiths and cultures gracing the planet. That will put us on the only viable path toward a global ethic–an ethic that will then have to be expressed to the peoples of the world in the rich diversity of cultural forms that constitute the world’s faiths.